What Does Exodus 16:6 Mean?

So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, "At evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against the LORD.

For what are we, that you grumble against us?" Moses and Aaron's relay of YHWH's promise includes the embedded theological correction: the Quail-manna provision will demonstrate that it was YHWH who brought Israel out of Egypt. The food proves the Exodus. The hunger-motivated complaint has been about Moses and Aaron's leadership, but the provision will reveal who is truly responsible for Israel's welfare.

"At evening you shall know... in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD": the twin provision schedule has a knowledge-structure: the evening quail produces knowledge (YHWH brought you out), the morning manna produces sight (the glory of YHWH). The manna morning is a glory-encounter before the tabernacle exists to house the glory. YHWH's character is revealed through provision just as it was through the plagues: the knowledge-formula governs both judgment and gift.

"What are we?". Moses and Aaron's self-deprecation is the correct leadership response: the food complaint is: about YHWH, not about the leaders who represent him. The displacement of the community's theological question from the leaders to the divine God is the covenant leader's primary service to his people. Moses will repeat this correction (verses 7-8) to ensure the complaint's true theological target is unmistakable. Leadership that accurately identifies where the community's faith-crisis is directed serves better than leadership that absorbs the theological challenge as personal.